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Stop bickering and look out for the asteroids! An interview with Jonathan Haidt
The Washington Post: Voters are already casting early ballots. The candidates have been crisscrossing the country, dodging megastorm Sandy (although they halted campaign activities Tuesday in the wake of the storm). Both parties are practically turning swing states, such as Ohio and Florida, upside-down in an effort to shake out every last vote. Campaign ads seem to be everywhere, plaguing cord cutters and cable and satellite subscribers alike. It’s the homestretch of a tight race, and as the candidates continually remind the electorate, the stakes could not be higher, so why take a risk and vote for the other guy?
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Getting Into a Benefactor’s Head
The New York Times: Jen Shang understands the power of prayer — to open wallets. Ms. Shang, who bills herself as the only philanthropic psychologist in the world, recently advised a religious organization to tinker with a direct-mail fund-raising solicitation, to encourage potential donors to pray before deciding to give. Some religious people, Ms. Shang found, “pray and read Bibles when making a major life decision before they talk to others, think about it, meditate about it, let their emotions cool down.” The experiment paid off. In early research, the solicitation with the suggestion of prayer “significantly” increased the campaign’s response rate compared with previous appeals.
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Teen Sex Study Links Age At First Sexual Experience To Romantic Relationships In Adulthood
The Huffington Post: When it comes to sex, "late bloomers" may have a better shot at finding happiness in romantic relationships later in life, according to new research conducted at the University of Texas at Austin--but it's complicated. The research shows that people who lose their virginity at an older age are less likely to marry and tend to have fewer romantic partners in adulthood. But those who do end up in a committed relationship in adulthood tend to be happier with their partners than their peers whose first sexual intercourse came at an earlier age. What's the explanation?
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The smell of fear is real and it’s contagious, study claims
The Boston Globe: "These findings are contrary to the commonly accepted assumption that human communication runs exclusively via language or visual channels," said Gün Semin and colleagues from Utrecht University in the Netherlands in a statement. In new research published Monday in the journal Psychological Science, researchers tested the sweaty armpits of 10 men while they watched films such as The Shining or gross-out scenes from MTV's television series Jackass. Next, the researchers asked 36 women to take a visual search test while they unknowingly inhaled the chemosignals of the men's sweat.
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Study: Variation in the Smell of Our Sweat Can Convey Fear or Disgust
The Atlantic: PROBLEM: Some animals can communicate their emotional states through chemical signals called chemosignals. Can human animals do so as well? METHODOLOGY: Researcher Gün Semin and company at Utrecht University in the Netherlands induced strong feelings in their subjects by showing them fear- or disgust-inducing films, then collected and froze their armpit sweat . The 10 male "sweat donors" had been decontaminated in the days leading up to the experiment by avoiding smoking, exercise, strong-smelling foods, and alcohol.
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Hurricane You
Slate: Hurricane Sandy charged into the mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States today. Sandy isn’t exactly a common name these days. How can you get a tropical storm named after yourself? Lobby the National Weather Service. The World Meteorological Association maintains lists of tropical storm names for each of the next six years. When that six-year cycle ends, the sequence of names goes back to the beginning. If your name is Valerie, for example, you might have a storm named after you this year and again in 2018. Wilfreds can hope for tropical storm namesakes in 2014 and 2020. Ophelias should stay tuned to the forecast in 2017 and 2023.
